This invention relates in general to full face vehicle wheels, and in particular to a full face wheel having a slip fit joint between the full face wheel disc and the partial wheel rim.
It is known in the art to fabricate a two piece vehicle wheel by attaching a wheel disc to a separately formed wheel rim. Typically, the wheel disc is cast or forged from metal. The wheel rim is typically formed from a flat strip of metal which is rolled into a cylindrical hoop. The adjacent edges of the hoop are butt welded together to form a cylindrical preform. The preform is formed into a wheel rim by a metal forming process such as a spin forming process. The metal forming process forms inboard and outboard tire bead retaining flanges, inboard and outboard tire bead seats and a center deepwell into the preform. The resulting wheel rim is usually attached to the wheel disc by a welding process. Both the wheel disc and the wheel rim can be formed from alloys of the same lightweight metal, such as aluminum, magnesium or titanium, or, as a further cost reduction, a wheel disc formed from an alloy of a lightweight metal can be attached to a wheel rim rolled from steel.
To further improve the appearance of the vehicle wheel, the wheel disc can be formed to include the outboard tire bead retaining flange. The resulting wheel disc, which is called a full face wheel disc, is attached to the outboard end of a partial wheel rim. The attachment can occur at the outboard tire bead seat, the deepwell, or another location. The assembled vehicle wheel is often referred to as a full face wheel. When a tire is mounted on a full face wheel, the joint between the wheel disc and the wheel rim is completely hidden and only the wheel disc is visible. A decorative finish is often applied to the face of the wheel disc to further enhance the appearance of the wheel.
The partial wheel rim and the full face wheel disc are typically attached to one another by use of a butt joint between the outboard end of the wheel rim and an inboard portion of the wheel disc. The wheel rim and the wheel disc are joined and welded together to form the full face wheel. The use of a butt joint requires additional tooling for fixturing and assembly of the wheel rim and the wheel disc, which increases the cost of manufacturing the full face wheel. Another design for a full face wheel uses an interference fit between the inner diameter of the outboard end of the wheel rim and the outer diameter of an annular inboard shoulder of the wheel disc. Such a design also requires additional tooling for fixturing and assembly of the wheel rim and the wheel disc.
The present invention relates to a full face wheel comprising a full face wheel disc and a partial wheel rim. The wheel disc includes an inboard portion having an annular groove formed therein. The wheel rim includes an annular tapered outboard end. The tapered outboard end of the wheel rim is received in the groove in a slip fit. A bond such as a weld is formed between the outboard end of the wheel rim and the inboard portion of the wheel disc to secure the wheel rim to the wheel disc.
The invention also contemplates a process for fabricating a full face wheel. Initially, a full face wheel disc and a partial wheel rim are formed. The wheel disc is formed with an inboard portion having an annular groove formed therein. The wheel rim is formed with an annular tapered outboard end. The wheel rim is assembled onto the wheel disc by inserting the tapered outboard end of the wheel rim into the groove in the wheel disc in a slip fit. Lastly, the outboard end of the wheel rim is secured to the inboard portion of the wheel disc to form the full face wheel.
The joint design of the present invention allows the wheel rim to be simply inserted into the wheel disc without the use of fixturing or heat used to currently expand the rim. The design also provides the opportunity to manually assemble the rim to the disc, thus eliminating expensive tooling. Dimensional improvements are seen in both radial machining and lateral machining of the inboard bead seat since the two components simply slide together with the force applied in the weld station.